In the Art Room: Creating

Okay, so, two things: I made a poster for my students in my art room and I'm sharing it with you, if you like. You can scroll down and click for a free download. Second thing: if you don't like the poster, don't print it. And that's all I'm going to say about that. The end.

Okay, I lied. I have more to say. I created this anchor chart for my students. PDF right here. Nearly all of my kiddos fall under the "real creating" category. They work hard, they follow process steps, they are engaged and love coming to art. But I do have those friends who are "fake creating". They bother other artists, they rush through their work and they are careless creatives. Some might say "this is how they create". Look, I know my students. I know they all create differently. And I know when they are being lazy, distracting and careless. This is not how one grows as an artist. 

If you've seen videos of me teaching, then you know I am all about the silly. I am all about teaching to different learners. But I am not about to forfeit the art education of my students for the sake of other students who are not giving it their individual best. 

Like I said, take the poster or leave it. You do you. I'll keep doing what I believe to be the best for my young artists. They are my top priority. 

What the Art Teacher Wore #206

 Hey, sweet friends! I hope your week was a wonderful one...mine started out so super amazing as I had a visitor all the way from Australia! Thank you so much, Belinda for hanging out with me and my students. They LOVED having you as much as I did!

Nearly all of my students were painting this week, from kindergarten through third grade. This was great because it meant low prep for me (aside from the initial painting prep which, as you know, is time consuming!). I love painting and I love teaching painting with my students. In fact, you can find out all about our supplies, set up and routines here! 

And, in case you are wondering, yes, my kids did draw all over this dress! Actually, they drew self portraits in the frames that was printed on this fabric and then I stitched it into a dress. You can find out more here. 

My third graders spent two art classes painting these large Chinet plates for their circle loom weaving project. On the first day, we reviewed painting routines and created concentric circles. On the second day, we painted patterns on our plates. These make me so stinkin' happy! I cannot wait to weave with these guys tomorrow!

My latest new favorite thing: lidded ice cube trays. I found mine on the Walmart website but they are available in lots of places. The reason I love them: they gonna keep my paints from drying out. I've tried egg cartons and regular ice cube trays...but the paint always dries. Hoping these prove to be the solution.

 Since we are all painting, I thought wearing this dress would be the safest bet! Loved chatting with the kids about how I created it. Details here. 

 My third graders are killlin' it with these plates and I'm so excited! I talk a lot about craftmanship in my art room...and you can read about that here. 

Kindergarten hopping on the Kandinsky train with these smaller cardboard circles they are painting for Dot Day. We totally didn't make the Dot Day deadline...and that's okay with me. These are so sweet!

 So I'm doing something crazy: I'm doing two different weaving lessons with my third graders! While one group is circle loom weaving, another is tree weaving. Before we could paint a landscape on our plates, we had to create two landscape painting sketches. These turned out so stinkin' pretty! Proper blog post on these to come...they will def be framed and featured in the halls soon!

 My first graders completed their HUGE 14" dots this week! I adapted a lesson that I shared here. On the reverse, we'll be doing something different than the blog post...I'll keep you posted. We will be hanging these like mobiles and I'm so stoked to see them up!

 Another day of painting, another painted dress by me. 

 After creating their two small painting sketches, my third graders had to pick their favorite to paint on their plate. I'll keep you posted on how their tree weaving goes! 

 YOU GUYS. LIKE, WHY?!

 I got a ton of questions on painting with children this week. So I did a blog post and have a podcast dropping later this week on this very topic!  

 Check out my new art teacherin' tool belt! Chrissie makes them CUSTOM to your interests! I love mine. You can find out more about Chrissie and her designs here. 

 FINALLY getting our Getting to Know You sculptures up. I meant to go in to school on Sunday and knock it out...no dice. 

Did y'all celebrate Dot Day? We did...we just didn't get everything up in time. Or AT ALL...and that's okay. I'm excited to see everything complete and on display. 

I cannot wait to share with you my sweet second grader's embroidery lesson. Stay tuned!

In the Art Room: Painting with Children

 Recently, I've been sharing all of the painting projects my students are working on. Turns out, nearly EVERYONE is painting (except for 4th...they are SEWING, eep!) and my drying racks overfloweth. As I've been posting our projects and our painting set up, I have gotten a lot of questions...from what paint we are using to how the kids clean their brushes to how we keep out paint trays so neat (or try to). I though it would be best to share the answers in a video. This video features me teaching my kindergarten students on the very first days of painting. We cover how to properly hold a brush, how to clean our paint brush and how to keep our paint trays bright and colorful. Here you go:

I hope that helps! I find that I'm not a very strict teacher...nor am I very consistent...but one thing that I am pretty tough about: painting. Once we establish those proper painting techniques early on, we can start creating things like this:

To kick off the school year, my third graders are weaving. Some of my classes are circle loom weaving while others are tree weaving. For our circle looms, we are using large Chinet plates. On our first day, we painted concentric circles and on our second, our focus was on patterns. Keep you posted on this one...we are stoked to weave next week!

 In the past, I've always used either ice cube trays or egg cartons for paint trays. But the ice cube trays are a mess because I'm constantly covering them with plastic wrap and the egg cartons have holes and tend to leak. When I found that a friend on IG was sharing that there are ice cube trays WITH LIDS, I knew I had to get some! You can find these on Walmart...for the best deal.

 
 I mean...I just can't get enough!

 I wanted to share with you a view of my space...so you could see where are drying racks are. I have a drying rack positioned at the end of each group of two tables. This prevents my kids from roaming the room with wet paintings. I also try to keep a trash can near the racks so the kids can dispose of whateverness as they need. I don't let the kids wash their hands at the sink unless they are exceptionally messy...I have 30 minute art classes, I don't have time for that!

 Just a little peak at these landscapes created by my third graders...these will be for their tree weavings. I am loving the colors! They had to create two practice landscapes too...you can see one on the left. More to come!

What do you wear when everyone is painting? This ensemble, of course...and mismatched shoes cuz why not?! I hope the video and some tips help! Please feel free to leave questions on the comments, friends!

What the Art Teacher Wore #205

 Lemme just start by saying that I'm feeling so out of sorts lately with this here sharing space of mine. FOR YEARS I've been so good about posting three times a week and lately, like for the past couple of months, I'm lucky if I post here once! I feel badly about it, I have so much I want to share with y'all...but have not been doing my best at making the time. Just know that more posts and videos are in the works so be sure and hang with me...I'm just struggling right now at finding a balance. How 'bout you?

Here's where I'm struggling: TIME.MANAGEMENT. This has always been my biggest struggle as I'm a slacker, procrastinator, time waster and then, when I realize that the proverbial doo-doo has hit the fan, I'm a panic-er. Right now, my biggest struggle is adjusting to my new schedule this year. I start earlier (in the past, I always had a lovely morning plan time which would allow me to get ready for the day). This year, that's shortened and then, on some days, my classes are back to back...I know, we've all been there. But I'm used to having a pinch of time between my classes to prep and that's now more. By the end of my day, I'm left feeling like I have no idea WHAT just happened...and no energy to prep for the rest of the week. 

Also, as soon as I get home, Mitch and I go for about a four mile hike at the local lake. I LOVE this, we've been doing it for months...but it also means that my evening is shortened. By the time I get home, around 8:45, I feel like passing out.

But I don't...because I have a terrible habit of staying up too late. Doing not much of anything. Sometimes painting, sometimes creating...when I really should be sleeping. 

All that to say...I'm planning to get my life together (HAHAHAHA! Life Coach Wanted!) and get on a regular blogging schedule. At least that's the plan. 

Okay! On with my wacky week!

Thankfully, we had Monday off...but I kinda hate shortened weeks. They throw me off my teaching schedule, put some of my classes behind while others pull ahead. Don't get me wrong, I loved me a break but now I'm left with that "who am I? Where am I?" feeling. 

Like many of y'all, my younger kiddos are all about learning LINES right now. You can check out my line unit here. 

I'm also giving Dot Day a go with my first graders. They are painting on HUGE 14" cardboard pizza rounds that I bought in a 100 pack at Gordon Food Service (Amazon also sells them). We're adding color to BOTH sides of these as we'll be hanging them like a mobile. No...they won't be ready by the official Dot Day and that's okay. Here is a blog post filled with my favorite dot day ideas.

 I'm kicking off the school year with all things fibers! Because I'M INSANE. So my third graders painting landscapes on giant oval plates for their tree weaving project. These are a work in progress, still have details to add. 

 I believe I finally remembered to take an outfit photo on Wednesday. See? I can't even keep up with that! Top from Forever 21 (size up if you get one, like everything else in that store, it runs small), skirt from Modcloth, shoes are Converse and my jacket was latch hooked by me (see top photo for the back). 

 I couldn't wait until Friday to do a Feet Up Friday...I was wiped out only after 2 days!

 How do y'all distribute yarn? I always make Yarn Monsters for my kids. Basically, I take every color in my hand, start wrapping it around from my hand to my elbow until I've lost count of how many wraps. Then I cut it all with my scissors and tie a very tight knot in the middle. The kids then just pull one string out at a time...works great! Paint splatter dress made by me. 

When I sew with my younger students, like second grade, we stitch on burlap. I got SUPER lucky at the thrift store and scored a rainbow assortment of fabric. I did have to cut and glue the edges (to prevent fraying) but was stoked to get so many options!

 I see my second graders for 30 minutes at a time. On the first day, they picked their fabric which I'd glue popsicle sticks and yarn to for a tapestry. They chose their stitching fabric and learned how to thread and knot their needle. And that was the end of the first day. By the second day, nearly everyone had mastered a running stitch which they are creating around the border of their tapestry. They are SO EXCITED about this project. More to come, promise!

 My fourth graders are making pillows: emoji pillows, pizza pillows and...donuts! So I had to wear this dress for the occasion. 

 Not sure if I shared with you but I've always had a drum set...but I've not always had it out in my art room. This year, I decided to pull it out again as our Clean Up drums. Last week, each kid learned to play a fill...now, when it's clean up time I pick on kiddo and they go play it as our signal to clean up. The kids have been SUPER respectful of the drums. I'm so glad I busted them out again.

On Friday, we started adding color to our dots! We'll finish these this week and begin painting the back too. I can't wait!

I managed to stay a little late on Friday to prep everything for next week...one thing I wasn't able to tackle:

My desk! There's always next week, right?! I'm sure it will look exactly like this if not much worse. Oh well! Have a great week, y'all!

What the Art Teacher Wore #204

Hey there, friends! I come to you just as excited as this photo from Monday because...it's a three day weekend. Here's to staying in my pj's all weekend, watching The Office for the umpteenth time and working on all the projectzzzz. I hope you all are livin' it up and partyin' hard like me!

To kick off the week, I wore my needle felted Kandinsky inspired dress to inspire my third graders as they started painting their plates for our Circle Loom Weaving unit. I've got several weaving videos on my YouTube channel if you are interested in bringing fibers to your art room. Just search my playlist Fibers!

Many of my grades are kicking off the year with fiber arts projects like sewing, weaving and fiber applications. I'm so excited about that, here's just a peak. MANY more details to come, I pinkie swear! Of course, I share tons of sneak peeks here. 

 On Tuesday I got all set to teach some of my classes about landscapes. They are getting ready to do my Tree Weaving project which means they gotta paint a landscape first. 

 I was feeling all sorts of prepared. We partnered up and looked at the landscapes in those clear plastic sleeves. The kids had to work together to find the horizon line, the back-, middle- and foreground. It was a GREAT pre-assessment. Then we went over the vocabulary and corrected our mistakes. I chatted about scale, perspective and atmosphere. We were just getting ready to paint when the fire alarm went off.

C'est la vie. After being outside for 10 minutes, we were hot, bothered and not ready to paint. So with our short class, we each took our turn playing the Clean Up Drums instead. More on the Monet Dress here. 

Many years ago, my husband scored me a drum set for my art room. I haven't pulled it out of the storage closet in a couple of years...but decided to this year. It's our Clean Up Drums...an incentive for awesome behavior. One student is picked at the end of class to play a fill. I teach all the kids how to play a fill so that when it's their turn to play, they'll know. On our first intro do, we each get our chance to learn and play a fill...it's a lot of fun. 

 My fourth graders are gearing up to sew. Once class is stitching emoji pillows and they are SO EXCITED. I had to wear my needle felted emoji dress for the occasion. 

Teaching sewing means teaching good sewing habits. I created color coded sewing kits for each table. The kits include a color coded needle book (the felt piece with the button) and a color coded felt backed magnet for pins. I'll keep you posted on their progress!

 Another fourth grade class is stitching pizza pillows! So OF COURSE I managed to leave all of their supplies at home. SMH. They were great and the rolled with our alternative project instead...sewing next time!

Third graders from Monday had a bonus art class on our half day Friday. I was excited to see the patterns they added to their plates in just 30 minutes!

Since my younger students have really been focusing on line, I have been introducing them to the work of Kandinsky...which means I got to end my week on a Kandinsky note too. Hope y'all have a long and relaxing weekend!